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Instructor’s Manual to Accompany

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Developing Leaders for a Networked World (2e)

By Peter W. Cardon

Chapter 16:Employment Communications

IM 16-1© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

Teaching Note

Hello Fellow Instructor,

Students are naturally interested in this chapter since they are anxious about finding good entry-level positions and getting started on rewarding careers. Unfortunately, in many cases, they are faced with more challenging employment prospects than students were a decade ago. I think, however, we can help students face the employment process optimistically and successfully.

Employment communications are changing in many ways. Some employers no long expect cover letters. Some employers expect only digital résumés. Other employers use only online application systems. The role of LinkedIn profiles and online portfolios is growing in importance. Yet, many employers still rely on traditional paper formats. Many job fairs on student campuses are little different than they were a few decades ago. We business communication instructors should communicate with one another often to stay updated on what employers expect as far as the formats of employment communications.

However, the strategies of effective employment communications have not changed. We communication instructors are often the most significant contributors in helping our students develop these strategies that they will use throughout their careers. These basic strategies involve identifying key professional abilities and attributes, understanding how these abilities and attributes match the needs of employers, and communicating professional value to employers.

Please contact me anytime – to share your experiences, your ideas, and your reactions.

Best of wishes,

Peter W. Cardon, MBA, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorCenter for Management CommunicationUniversity of Southern California

Email: [email protected]: @petercardonFacebook: facebook.com/cardonbcommWeb: cardonbcom.com


Chapter 16 Summary and PowerPoint Notes

SLIDE 16-1

SLIDE 16-2

This chapter covers the following topics: your key selling points; primary needs of employers; résumés and cover letters; references that improve your prospects; common interview questions; job interview follow-up; and leaving an organization.

SLIDE 16-3

LO16.1 Identify your key selling points for the job application process.LO16.2 Evaluate the primary needs of employers for positions of interest.LO16.3 Set up the message structure for résumés and cover letters.LO16.4 Highlight your qualifications with effective tone, style, and design.


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LO16.5 Create chronological and functional résumés to highlight your key selling points.LO16.6 Develop a list of references that will improve your employment prospects.LO16.7 Compose effective cover letters that highlight your key selling points.LO16.8 Review your job application documents for effectiveness and fairness.

SLIDE 16-5

LO16.9 Develop strategies for responding to common job interview questions.LO16.10 Explain etiquette for following up after job interviews.LO16.11 Explain etiquette for leaving an organization with grace and foresight.

SLIDE 16-6

To create résumés and cover letters that serve your long-term career interests, your first step should be to carefully evaluate your career ambitions and qualifications. In this process, you clarify your professional goals for the short term (one to two years) and long term (five to ten years), identify the skills you have developed at school and work, and sort out the attributes that define who you are as a professional. As with other business communications, you attempt to identify your most important and strongest points so you can develop a concise and compelling message about the value you will bring to your prospective employers.


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Identifying your career goals helps you accomplish several things in the job search process. First, it helps you frame your résumé and cover letter to project your career hopes. Second, it helps you evaluate how well your abilities and attributes prepare you for your desired career. This process allows you to address those areas where you most need improvement. Finally, it shows employers that you are serious, as well-defined career goals imply seriousness in your approach to work.

SLIDE 16-8

Once you have written down your career goals, identify your abilities and attributes. Abilities are skills and knowledge that can be applied to accomplishing work tasks. Attributes are personal traits or characteristics. In the job application process, employers are often looking for more than your abilities. They’re trying to figure out the kind of person you are.

SLIDE 16-9

To help you identify your interests, abilities, and attributes, you might consider completing a self-inventory (see Figure 16.1 with an example of Haniz’s self-inventory). Start by writing your career goals. Once you have written down your career goals, identify your abilities and attributes.


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One useful way of analyzing your abilities and attributes is in terms of credibility. To do so, consider the features of competence (ability to accomplish work tasks), caring (ability to maintain effective workplace relationships), and character (ability to uphold corporate norms and standards). Competence focuses on the technical skills to achieve work tasks. In Table 16.1, you can see examples of abilities and attributes associated with competence, caring, and character.

SLIDE 16-11

Use all the resources available to learn about your options and ensure that you apply for the jobs that are good fits for you. You likely have a career center located in your college or university. Spend some time talking to experts there and make a plan for exhaustively searching for jobs that match your interests and qualifications. Where possible, contact and get involved with professional organizations and visit organizational websites to learn about options.

SLIDE 16-12

Use all the available online options to search for positions, but also make sure you are networking in the traditional sense as well—talking to friends, relatives, and colleagues. Even in the Social Age, the most common forms of networking for employment opportunities remain people you know well (see Table 16.2).


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A mistake that many job applicants make is trying to display everything they do well. This approach often ends up sending a scattered message and diluting a central sales theme about your key abilities and attributes. Generally, employers prefer single-page résumés, although it is increasingly acceptable to create two-page résumés. As a university student, however, aim for a single page. If you find yourself using more than one page, you are likely weakening the message about your key selling points.

SLIDE 16-14

Typically, résumés contain the following major sections: name block, career summary or objective, education, and experience.

SLIDE 16-15

Some principles of effective résumés are the following: Emphasize accomplishments with action verbs. Quantify accomplishments where possible. Position your most important contributions

first. Group and label information to increase ease

of reading. Remove irrelevant details.


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Some additional principles of effective résumés are the following: Avoid buzzwords and jargon. Be exact and avoid any errors. Group and label information to improve ease

of reading. Format to distinguish pieces of information. Select a simple yet visually appealing layout.

SLIDE 16-17

Once you’ve analyzed your key abilities and attributes and gathered information to place in your résumé, you’re ready to present the information in a compelling manner. The tone, style, and design must be perfect. In short, how can you make sure that potential employers rapidly understand your story: the unique abilities and attributes that will deliver value to them?

SLIDE 16-18

Select your action words strategically. Without exaggerating, choose verbs that make your key abilities and attributes jump off the page. By the same token, avoid verbs that undersell your abilities and attributes. Many university students use weak verbs when describing their significant customer service and administrative experiences. Phrases such as answered calls, entered information in the computer, and waited tables do not emphasize transferable abilities and attributes. Rather, they focus on menial duties and do not focus on professional outcomes.


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Read through some of the less-effective and more-effective statements in Table 16.4 and notice how action verbs can bolster your credibility.

SLIDE 16-20

Your potential employers want to know how valuable your contributions have been in your prior jobs. So, where possible, describe key contributions and how they impacted the bottom line. Often, even when you can’t say for certain how much you impacted financial results, you can provide numbers that show the significance of your work. Notice the contrasts between less-effective and more-effective examples in Table 16.5 and how quantification strengthens the more-effective statements.

SLIDE 16-21

The order in which you place your accomplishments and other supporting details shows how you prioritize them. The supporting details you place first or second under each heading in your résumé form the deepest impressions about your abilities and attributes. Furthermore, because most potential employees skim, they may see only the first one or two supporting details for each heading. So, strategically arrange this information to highlight your best features (see Table 16.6).


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Writing résumés and cover letters requires the discipline to tell a story of how your key abilities and attributes will provide value to an employer. You should generally avoid details about your personal life, especially those that some people may find objectionable or unprofessional. Other information—although technically OK on a résumé—should be provided only if it helps develop your narrative. Generally, avoid listing personal interests and hobbies unless this information takes up little space and accentuates your key abilities and attributes (see Table 16.7).

SLIDE 16-23

As you craft your job application, show enthusiasm for potential positions without resorting to clichés. Many potential employers perceive these statements as showing unrealistic or naïve expectations about a job or inflated beliefs about abilities (see Table 16.8).

Potential employers examine your résumé with intense scrutiny. On the first pass, many discard it immediately if it contains typos or other careless errors. In other words, the standard is high, and few potential employers are forgiving. For an example of poor proofreading, see Table 16.9.


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When you have long lists of items, consider grouping the information to help recruiters quickly grasp your abilities (see Table 16.10). If you don’t group lists of four or more items, recruiters will often skip or gloss over them. Furthermore, by grouping items on your résumé, you show your understanding of related skill sets.

SLIDE 16-25

As you format your résumé, focus on ease of processing and consistency. Imagine recruiters who are reviewing dozens if not hundreds of résumés in a day. They are likely skimming on the first pass to see if your résumé deserves more attention. So make sure they can gather the most pertinent information quickly. By formatting your document effectively with bold, italics, spacing, and other features, you can help recruiters understand your primary abilities and attributes within 20 to 30 seconds (see Table 16.11).

SLIDE 16-26

One of your first choices as you assemble your résumé is the format. The two major options are chronological résumés, which present the information grouped by work and education over time, and functional résumés, which present the information in terms of key skills. The most common and generally preferred format, especially for young professionals, is the chronological résumé. One recent survey showed that 75 percent of hiring managers preferred them, whereas 17 percent preferred functional résumés, and 8 percent had no preference.


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Functional résumés draw special attention to your key skills. They are most often used by professionals with extensive (more than 15 years) experience and individuals with little or no work experience. Experienced professionals use them as a way to streamline a lengthy list of jobs, many of which involved similar accomplishments and experiences. Inexperienced individuals often use them to emphasize key skills developed through a combination of school, community, volunteer, and other types of activities while de-emphasizing a lack of work experience.

SLIDE 16-28

You will need to provide a list of personal references as part of most job applications. One recent study showed that for professional positions, 62 percent of employers call three or more references from applicants’ lists of references, 18 percent call two references, 3 percent call just one reference, 8 percent call more than three references, and just 9 percent do not contact any references. As you construct your list of references, consider these tips: Develop relationships with potential

references over time. Contact your references ahead of time. Thank your references. Complete a consistently formatted, well-

detailed reference list.


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Make sure you provide current contact information. In addition, consider providing a brief (one or two sentences) description of your professional or school relationship to each reference. Finally, format the list of references to be compatible with your résumé (see Figure 16.10).

SLIDE 16-30

Cover letters describe your interest in and qualifications for a position. Whereas you may have up to three versions of your résumé for various positions, you must uniquely tailor each cover letter to a particular position. Keep in mind the following advice: The cover letter often forms the first

impression. Clearly identify the position you are applying

for. Be focused and concise. Show a confident and enthusiastic tone

without exaggerating or displaying arrogance. Tailor your cover letter to the job posting and

needs of the employer. Adapt for unsolicited letters.


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Your job application must be perfect. Recruiters rarely have any tolerance for inaccuracies in a résumé. Furthermore, they won’t hire you unless you present your selling points effectively. On the most basic level, you should make sure every element of your job application correctly portrays your abilities and attributes, so you must avoid any urge to exaggerate. You should also review your documents over and over to ensure they emphasize your selling points in a compelling manner. Consider getting the opinions of many people about your résumé.

SLIDE 16-32

As much as possible, gain a sense ahead of time about the dress standards at the company where you are interviewing. Generally, you should dress up, even when the company has a fairly casual environment. Typically, err on the side of conservative dress—that is, wear well-pressed, clean, and nicely fitted clothes. Avoid over-accessorizing with too much jewelry, flashy glasses, or other items.

SLIDE 16-33

One of the first signals of professionalism you give at a job interview relates to your clothing choices (notice, for example, the items related to dress in Figure 16.14).


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The moment of truth for hiring managers generally occurs during the job interview. Many make fairly quick judgments about your abilities and attributes. To prepare for the questions you may be asked, consider the following tips: Respond to questions strategically,

confidently, and concisely. Be perceptive about what hiring managers are

evaluating. Tell success stories. Avoid criticizing your former organizations,

supervisors, and colleagues. Ask questions.

SLIDE 16-35

In Table 16.12, you’ll find many common types of interview questions. Be prepared to respond to any of them strategically, confidently, and concisely.


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During job interviews, telling stories about your successes can create a positive connection between you and your potential employers. One approach to telling success stories is the STAR method (Situation, Tasks, Actions, Results). Table 16.14 shows how Haniz uses the STAR method to briefly—but convincingly—respond to the question, “How well do you work with deadlines?” Read through this example and compare its specificity to an abstract, nonspecific response, such as “I work well under pressure and deadlines. In fact, I thrive under these conditions and often produce my best results.”

SLIDE 16-37

Many companies are increasingly using web conferences for initial job interviews. The use of Skype, Google Hangouts, or other teleconferencing platforms is far more convenient and less expensive—in time and money—than flying job candidates out for job interviews. Consider the following strategies for these types of job interviews: Do several trial runs. Make sure your profile for the web conference

software creates the right impressions. Look professional. Tidy up your room or office. Look directly at the camera. Smile and express yourself nonverbally. Use notes strategically. Avoid distractions. Follow up with a thank-you note.


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Sending a note of appreciation following an interview is a good strategy. In a poll of 150 senior executives, 88 percent stated that sending a thank-you note could increase chances of employment. When asked how many job applicants actually did send thank-you notes, executives estimated that just 51 percent of candidates do so. Your primary goal should be to express goodwill and confirm your interest in the position.

SLIDE 16-39

Within a few hours to one day after your interview, send a thank-you note (see Figure 16.15). The note should be brief and sincere. Some job applicants wonder whether they should send a thank-you email or a thank-you card. In a recent survey, one-half (50 percent) of HR professionals said that sending a thank-you email is the best way of expressing thanks. Nearly one-third (28 percent) said it’s best to send a thank-you note by regular mail. Also, some HR professionals (17 percent) recommend sending a thank-you email right away and sending a thank-you note by regular mail.

SLIDE 16-40

When you accept a new position, you can extend several courtesies to your current employer and ensure that you leave on good terms so that your supervisors can provide a positive recommendation in the future if you need it. In the first place, you should immediately inform your supervisor that you are leaving, preferably in person. In addition to telling your supervisor in person that you are leaving, you may be required to write a formal resignation.


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You may be required to write a formal resignation. Write a brief, warm, and appreciative letter (see Figure 16.17).

SLIDE 16-42

After studying this chapter, you should understand the following topics: your key selling points; primary needs of employers; résumés and cover letters; references that improve your prospects; common interview questions; job interview follow-up; and leaving an organization.


Suggested Approaches and Solutions to Learning Exercises

In these suggested approaches and solutions, you’ll find key points to look for in students’ responses.

16.1 Chapter Review Questions (LO 16.1 to LO 16.11)

A. Identifying your job interests, abilities, and attributes help employers see whether you are a good match for them. It also helps you communicate your value effectively to employers.

B. The textbook explains how attributes and abilities can be classified into aspects of credibility: competence, caring, and character. Reward students for well-reasoned responses to this question, even if they don’t match the categories from the textbook.

C. The textbook explains how to classify attributes and abilities based on job position statements. Of course, there are other ways of doing this. Reward students for well-reasoned, creative, and justified responses.

D. The main benefits of chronological résumés are that they are most often preferred by employers, easy to process for most hiring managers, and easy to group for résumé writers. Potential drawbacks include length issues (either too short or too long) and the difficulty in illustrating your key abilities and attributes. The main benefits of functional résumés include greater control over your message and more concise summaries of your abilities and attributes. Fewer hiring managers prefer functional résumés compared to chronological résumés, however, and functional résumés are more challenging for résumé writers to compose and for hiring managers to process.

E. Reward students for carefully constructed responses about showing confidence but not arrogance.

F. The underlying purpose of grouping and labeling data on your résumé is to highlight your abilities and attributes.

G. You can use several strategies to develop a reliable reference list for your job searches, including getting to know bosses, colleagues, and professors well and maintaining contact with them after classes end or you leave jobs.

H. Before, during, and after an interview, you should demonstrate professional etiquette. Generally, you should dress professionally, conservatively, and in line with company standards. You should maintain appropriate formality without seeming distant or stuffy. Typically, you should follow the lead of the interviewer. You should avoid talking negatively about past supervisors or colleagues and avoid topics such as salary or vacation time during first interviews. You should send a thank-you note after the interview.

I. Reward students for elaborating on the STAR (situation – task – actions – results) method and providing examples.

J. When leaving a position, you should give sufficient notice to your employer, show appreciation for the opportunities you’ve been given, avoid gloating, and write an official resignation letter if requested or required.


16.2 Using All Communication Channels in the Job Search Process (LO 16.2)

Reward students for incorporating Lundgren’s comments into thoughtful and goal-directed responses.

16.3 Identifying What Employers Are Seeking (LO 16.2)

Reward students for incorporating Berkowitch’s comments into thoughtful and goal-directed responses.

16.4 Showing Passion for a Company (LO 16.2)

Reward students for incorporating Eichten’s comments into thoughtful and goal-directed responses.

16.5 Interviewing with a Hiring Manager about Job Application Best Practices (LO 16.1, LO 16.2)

Reward students for complete and carefully constructed responses.

Consider using this as a team assignment.

16.6 Getting Feedback on your Résumé and Cover Letter (LO 16.3, LO 16.4, LO 16.5, LO 16.7, LO 16.8)


Consider using this as a group assignment in class.

16.7 Getting Feedback on your Résumé from a Professional in Your Desired Discipline/Industry (LO 16.3, LO 16.4, LO 16.5, LO 16.8)


16.8 Getting Feedback on Your Résumé from Classmates (LO 16.3, LO 16.4, LO 16.5, LO 16.8)


Consider using this as a group assignment in class.


16.9 Evaluate Your Key Selling Points (LO 16.1)

Responses will vary. Reward students for carefully constructed and nuanced responses. Also, reward students for self-reflective and goal-directed comments.

16.10 Analyze a Job Announcement of Interest to You (LO 16.2)


16.11 Using Action Words (LO 16.4)


16.12 Creating a Résumé (LO 16.3, LO 16.4, LO 16.5)

Reward students for providing a perfectly polished résumé.

16.13 Creating Functional and Chronological Résumés (LO 16.3, LO 16.4, LO 16.)

Reward students for providing carefully created résumés.

16.14 Creating a Reference List (LO 16.6)

Reward students for providing a well-developed reference list.

16.15 Creating a Cover Letter (LO 16.7)

Reward students for providing an effective cover letter.

16.16 Telling Stories with the STAR Method (LO 16.9)

Reward students for well-developed STAR stories.

16.17 Writing a Thank-You Note (LO 16.10)

Reward students for well-developed thank-you notes.


16.18 Writing a Resignation Letter (LO 16.11)

Reward students for well-developed resignation letters.

16.19 Review all rules in Appendix A about punctuation, number usage, and grammar. Then, rewrite each sentence to make all needed corrections.

A. Please accept my application for the Web Developer position (Job ID#4392) on your company’s website.

B. For the past four years, I have helped develop and run several websites.C. Before I describe some of my technical abilities, I want to describe the success of these

websites.D. In my current position at Better Horizons Credit Union, the marketing team and several web

developers have worked on a web strategy to attract younger members.E. I’ve been a significant part of these efforts to match a strategy to a web design, improve the

overall aesthetic appeal of the webpage, and identify strategies to improve our place in Internet searches.

F. I was able to oversee some design changes on the “Members” section of the website.G. Web traffic has grown by 18 percent in the last month since we applied these design changes.H. In each of these web development projects, I’ve gathered input from all people who will use the

websites: managers, colleagues, customers, and prospects.I. By getting this input, I can develop websites that are user-friendly, helpful, and appealing.J. I believe my primary strength as a web developer is to understand how the user experience

impacts future use of the website.


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